


Legacy

by thedreamerdelta



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: "but you already have a longfic", "look i know ok it just happened", Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Boomer Gaius ™, F/M, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), I hope you’re pleased with yourselves, Lalafells will take over the world, MMORPGs, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, in my defense they made themselves Way too much like Org XIII for me to take them seriously, meta af, most likely out of character ascians, oh well, selfindulgent bullshit to follow, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27790789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedreamerdelta/pseuds/thedreamerdelta
Summary: G’raha Tia, aspiring scholar and general campus nuisance at Baldesion University, spends his free time in the virtual world of Eorzea Online without a care.And then, in the blink of an eye, a hero in the making changed everything he thought he knew - about himself, his family... and his former guardian, who disappeared without a trace around the same time the deadly computer virus B4H4.mt annihilated the virtual world as they knew it.Could the long-sealed Crystal Tower hold the keys to his past?
Relationships: G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch/Warrior of Light
Comments: 90
Kudos: 23





	1. From Small Things

**Author's Note:**

> ~~give that wol a modern!AU, wols love modern!AUs~~

_“Beneath the fiery sky_  
_Where the rain runs dry,_  
_Let my song be lifted_  
_By the wind on high.”_

G’raha Tia, aspiring scholar and general campus nuisance in the real world, scanned the bright magenta horizon shining over the virtual recreation of Revenant’s Toll in Mor Dhona. What had some few years ago been a simple endgame hub had since evolved into a traveler’s midgame waypoint - complete with bustling markets and the ever-popular Seventh Heaven tavern. It was akin to a minor miracle.

After the infamous B4H4.mt virus that had practically destroyed the entire server, people thought the company would give up on the game. (It would have made more sense financially for them to do so.) Instead, it led the Fantasy Architect’s Libraries LLC to completely reset the game servers and rebuild everything from square one. It was, to date, the largest undertaking by any virtual reality MMORPG ever. Not, he thought as he looked around at the roaming shoppers, that the company in charge of the game had ever needed to come out with anything else. 

Of course, this had all happened before his own time in the world of Eorzea - before his late guardian had vanished without a trace, and he moved out of his small village to the Baldesion University campus to study Allagan history.

The players roaming around its streets didn’t notice him watching them from the bridge overhead, too busy trading their hard-earned gil and tomestones for the latest and greatest gear upgrades from Garlond Ironworks.

FAL LLC had never instituted a pay-to-win system with real currency, unlike some of their competitors, but they had a dedicated enough fanbase that they would hopefully never need to. It didn’t stop people from trying, of course, but these days the moderators were getting pretty decent about catching bot spam.

(It was harder to fake a “real” person in a virtual game than most thought.)

Movement at the corner of his vision pulled him away from his thoughts in time to feel the rumbling of large footsteps getting closer and closer.

“Faster, Mercury!” a woman’s voice shouted.

There- in the distance. A red chocobo carrying a blue-haired miqo’te sprinted at a near-full gallop towards the Toll. The ground shook thunderously as a ridiculously large cluster of Hill Gigas came into view, chasing after the lone bird and its rather unfortunate rider. 

It was rather amusing, all things considered. But he couldn’t very well leave someone in need when there was something he could do about it. 

He opened a command window.

> /sh gigas event otw 2 plaza  
>  Noah Legacy: gigas event otw 2 plaza

There. She’d get some help from the players nearby, even in the form of a revive after the event was over if nothing else. Some healers took every chance they could get to further their achievement progress. He made sure his longbow was equipped and readied himself to jump into the fray.

_Showtime._


	2. Greatness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone starts somewhere.  
> Sometimes, one hero’s journey begins with a little help - and a chance encounter.

Cethys K’alla owned a small coffee shop named Traveler’s Trial in the heart of Val, a quiet island town just a boat’s ride away from Baldesion University. It was just enough off the beaten path to be a hidden gem for sailors and students alike.

On this fateful morn, she was graced by the former.

“Welcome back to Traveler’s Trial! What can I get you today, Admiral?”

“I’m off duty here, K’alla, we’ve had this talk.”

Cethys eyed the older Roegadyn woman and her black pantsuit fondly. “And  _ you  _ know I’m just being polite. What can I get you, Merlwyb?”

“Sailor’s Delight.” She leaned over and down to peer into the display container. “And one of your sugar cookies while you’re at it.”

“Yes’m, one Sand Dollar Special and a Red Eye as dark as I’m legally allowed to serve it, coming right up.”

The former pirate smirked. “What about illegally?”

“I’d have to charge extra.” Cethys glanced up from the espresso machine, smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Shore leave treating your mates that well, then?”

Merlwyb sighed. “Those bastards. I was this close to throwing Slafyrsyn at the lot and going treasure hunting for the weekend instead.”

“No reason you still can’t.”

“He might  _ actually  _ have the courage to defect if I did.”

The miqo’te’s ear twitched. “What’s so important that he can’t watch the fresh blood?”

“His wife’s having their first child.”

“Hmm.” The smaller woman mused as she emptied and dumped the used grounds. “Well,  _ he _ isn’t giving birth to it.”

Merlwyb snorted. “Never change, Cethys.”

“You’d have my ear if I did.”

The door opened with a bang. 

“Welcome to Traveler’s Trial!” Cethys called as she finished up the Admiral’s order. “I’ll be with you in just a minute.”

“See, I don’t think that’ll work for us today, sweetheart.”

At the sound of the man’s voice, Cethys turned around and froze, her tail ramrod-stiff straight in the air. “What do you  _ want, _ Ilberd?”

“Now, now, is that anyway to treat a paying customer?” The tall man smiled unkindly. “Give the nice office lady her drink so we can have our little… discussion.”

The lalafell beside him froze upon seeing said woman’s face. “Uhh...Boss, I don’t think she’s-”

“Eager to hear you two blather on?” Merlwyb said, sliding a well-maintained pistol out of its holster and holding it casually at her side. “No, I dare say she is not. What business do the Braves have with a woman under  _ my _ protection?”

Ilberd frowned at being so easily foiled, rolling his eyes to deflect from the battle he’d lost before it began. “Really, of all the places your League could have chosen to weigh anchor, you picked Val?” His scimitar hung loosely at his waist, but he made no moves to draw it. 

“What can I say,” the Admiral replied with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “It has good character. Unlike  _ some _ people I could mention.”

The lalafell clenched his fists and stepped forward, but Ilberd caught his shoulder.

“I suppose you’d not be willing to step outside.”

“You suppose correctly.”

He tutted and shrugged. “Then I suppose there’s naught to be gained from remaining here much longer. Come, Yuyuhase.” 

“But what about-“

_ "Later, _ I said.” Ilberd waited until the lalafell had exited, then turned back briefly. “This isn’t over, K’alla.” He glared at her meaningfully over his shoulder, then let the door slam shut.

Cethys breathed a sigh of relief as the two walked up the sidewalk and out of sight. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Merlwyb scowled. “What in the hells was  _ that _ all about? Val is neutral territory, they  _ know _ that. I ought to report them to the council.”

“That man…” Cethys shook her head and sighed. “Ilberd’s been on my case for ages.”

“What about?”

“Oh, you know how it is. Protections this, customers that. They’re mostly empty threats, anyway - like you said, Val is neutral, like the rest of Sharlayan. We don’t have any part in nautical politics.” 

“Mostly?”

“Well,” Cethys said hesitantly, “he also’s been trying to get me to join the Griffin’s Roost. I told him in the game I’m still undecided, but… Anyway, hopefully it’ll be fine.” Cethys handed Merlwyb her drink and cookies. “Here - on the house today, since you most likely saved my arse from having to listen to him and his goons scare away my clientele for the next two hours.”

Frowning, the other woman shook her head and dug into her inner coat pocket for her wallet. “Of the two of us, who is running a business and thus has actual business expenses? Rent, for example?” She dropped more money than entirely necessary into the tip jar, staring Cethys down as if daring her to say something. “Exactly. That’s what I thought.”

The Miqo’te blushed under the woman’s intense gaze. “You’re too good to me.”

“Nonsense. Just looking after an investment, after all.” Merlwyb sipped her coffee and winked. “You’re doing great things, yet. How  _ is _ EO coming along for you, anyway? I’ve been meaning to ask.”

It was thanks to Merlwyb that Cethys had even gotten the ridiculously expensive (albeit slightly battered) VR unit to begin with. She suspected the League hadn’t acquired it legally by any means, but she had long known that were she to turn her nose up at pirates either real or virtual she could say goodbye to half her customers. Still, it worked well and the copy of Eorzea Online that came with it ran without a hitch, so she wasn’t complaining.

“It’s going okay. Thanalan looks just like I’d always imagined it, and I’m enjoying being part of the Thaumaturge’s Guild but - Are there really no Miqo’te in the guild? I actually don’t know if I even saw any outside of the Ruby Exchange. It’s fair strange.”

“They’re around somewhere,” Merlwyb waved dismissively. “In Limsa Lominsa, if not Ul’dah, at least. Where are you heading next?”

Cethys grinned. “Funny story about that…”

—

“Faster, Mercury!”

Cethys couldn’t believe she’d made it this far into Mor Dhona without pulling any aggro before. Now, however, it seemed her luck had run out. She would have made it, if she hadn’t gone the wrong way and the FATE hadn’t popped right on top of her. The gigantic horde of stampeding, mace-swinging Gigas was rapidly gaining on her, and as the distance between her target circle and their attack range began to run out she resigned herself to having to respawn and start all the way back from Northern Thanalan if she wanted to try and make her way any further.

And then, the strangest thing happened. The chat box chimed with someone’s zonewide /shout-ed message.

> Noah Legacy: gigas event otw 2 plaza

Who sent that? Cethys thought, bewildered. She looked up towards the city to try and see, but the sun was in her eyes. All she spotted was a silhouette - an archer, it looked like.

Whoever it was, she was certainly grateful as the first few adventurers began trickling out of the city in time to catch the event. A paladin with glowing sword and shield led the charge, and as she turned her head to watch them as they passed her, she saw beams of light flash all around them to catch the attention of the entire group. 

More and more players appeared by the Aetheryte, and it was all she could do to duck and steer Mercury out of the way of what seemed like every mount possible, from flying snakes to cars. Much as she wanted to stop and attune to it, she preferred not getting trampled, and thus went past everything until she reached the northern gates that led to a rather wintery-looking area and stopped, dismounting so her and Mercury could catch their breath. 

“W-well,” she laughed breathlessly into her chocobo’s sweat streaked feathers. “This is Revenant’s Toll, I presume.”

“You presume correctly!” She looked up towards the voice. A red-haired Miqo’te perched atop the fence, grinning from ear to ear.

“Er...H-Hello?” she called, coughing.

The man in question had the audacity to  _ jump _ down and somehow land on his feet. He straightened to look her in the eyes, and…was actually about an ilm shorter than her. 

It was kind of endearing, really.

—

“That sounds like quite the tale.” The roegadyn polished off the last of the extra shortbread Cethys had put out for the both of them while they chatted. 

“Well, it certainly was an interesting day, if nothing else.” 

“I hope your time in Eorzea Online proves to be equally entertaining,” she said as she gathered her things. “I know I keep bringing it up but - you know you have a spot waiting for you in the Maelstrom. I’ve told Commander Rhiki to be on the lookout for your application.”

“You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

“I do know.” Merlwyb stared at her seriously. “But I have a strong feeling you’re going to be somebody big there. Call it an admiral’s intuition, if you will.” 

“And if I’m not?” 

“If you’re not, then you’re not. But you of all people know I’m hardly ever wrong, Cethys.”

And with that, the Admiral nodded in farewell and left, leaving nothing but Cethys and her thoughts remaining to fill the resulting silence.


	3. Choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A first meeting. A friendship forged.
> 
> And danger on the horizon.

It was always fascinating, G’raha thought as he felled another Gigas with a loosed arrow, watching people as they caught on to the timed events that took place every once in a while. He’d see single adventurers here and there make their way towards the FATE - and then someone part of a group of friends or even a Free Company would catch wind, and the zone would be flooded before he knew it, flying mounts of every nature making their way to the battleground. He glanced back toward the aetheryte just in time to roll out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting clipped by a dragon’s snakelike tail.

He chuckled. Savage raiders and their Alte Roites.

It hadn’t been a problem until recently - EO’s latest update answered a lot of players’ prayers by making the older zones capable of sustaining flight. As a result, however, many of his preferred perches were now being taken up by photographers eager to get the best views of the realm - or in today’s case, in danger of being run over in midair. He made his way out of the danger zone, slowly retreating around the edges of the settlement. A voice reached his ears:

“This is Revenant’s Toll, I presume.”

The adventurer from earlier was huffing and puffing, short blue hair that he could now see was tipped with crimson much like his own stuck to her cheeks with sweat. She laughed to herself and her chocobo, and the light caught her Keeper-fanged smile and- 

-well, he couldn’t help himself, could he?

  
“You presume correctly!” he called down to her with a wide grin.

She startled, then looked up, hand blocking the sunlight from her face as she squinted. “Er, h-hello?”

Never one to pass up a dramatic entrance, he jumped down from the fence to land at her feet, before straightening up with what he hoped was a heroic smile.

  
The effect was somewhat diminished by the fact that he didn’t quite come up to her height - but he followed through nonetheless.

  
“Greetings, adventurer! Full glad am I that you made it out unscathed. I saw you running from the Gigas, you see.” He nodded back towards the south. “They’re having quite the time over there. ‘Twas thoughtful of you to bring the party to us.”

The keeper lowered her hand to look at his character name, and he met her mismatched eyes and very nearly gaped. They were so very startlingly a near-mirror image of his own in his real body that it couldn’t help but take him by surprise. 

Still, he admonished himself, anyone could have picked those colours - It was a virtual world, after all. He quashed his hopes before they could grow any further. Now was not the time to get hung up over a random adventurer, no matter how her crafted appearance may have called to him like a siren. 

“Noah…” she said thoughtfully. “You’re the one who sent out the Shout, aren’t you?”

“Indeed I am,” he replied, wondering vaguely what her voice would sound like wrapped around his real name. “May I offer you a hi-potion? You seem a bit worse for wear.”

“My thanks. That’s what I get for wandering too far, I guess.” She straightened and accepted the trade request with a self-deprecating laugh, and he looked once more into those mismatched eyes.

“What brings you out here at-'' He broke off and glanced up. Cethys Flamerose, read the character name, next to- “Level _twenty-three_?” G’raha asked incredulously. “How did you even get here?”

“Well,” Cethys said sheepishly, watching her health return to normal in the corner of her vision, “I wanted to see if I could even…” She gestured vaguely in the direction of the Toll. “You know. Just to try. I was surprised to even make it past the imperials, really.”

“Consider me rather impressed. Most do not normally reach this area in the game until…” he trailed off, memory for once failing him as she turned back to him and their gaze met once more.

“There was a man I was playing cards with just past the…” Cethys tapped her chin in thought. “Castrum, I believe it was called?” He nodded at her, and she continued, shrugging and returning to grooming her chocobo. “Anyway, I beat him, so he guided me through.”

“...As simple as that, was it?” He had never really given much thought to the Gold Saucer items and NPCs, but it seemed there were all sorts of easter eggs hidden for those who took the time and effort.

“It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. He had really good cards.” She turned back to finish brushing out her chocobo’s crimson feathers.

“I see,” he lied, not knowing a thing about the minigame. Was it his fault he spent most of his time reading rather than socializing?

_Technically, yes._

He grumbled internally at his own mocking thoughts.

”Really, it was only the Random rule that saved me. Turned into Reverse, and my weaker cards seized the day.” She glanced over her shoulder and laughed at his blank expression. “It’s okay, I’m used to people tuning me out when it comes to Triple Triad. It’s fun if you take the time and effort, though.”

G’raha smoothed down his sleeves, trying to hide his embarrassment, though his flattened ears gave it away easily. “Well then, Cethys Flamerose, oh bravest of sprouts, let me be the first to congratulate your making it to the city of Revenant’s Toll - minigames and all - despite the _overwhelming_ odds stacked against you. Truly a legend in the making, are you not?” He grinned, grandstanding but genuine nonetheless.

Cethys straightened and brushed Mercury’s dander from her mage robes. “I suppose, if you can call my ability to get into places I ought not to be in ‘legendary’ by any means.” She trailed off with a sigh. “Well. I should attune to the aetheryte and keep moving. Loads to see, and all that. Probably getting near dinner time, too, come to think of it...” She pulled up her menu at the thought.

“Wait-”

He didn’t know what prompted him to stop her, but - eyes or not - he had the feeling that she was important somehow - that he couldn’t just let this opportunity slip through his fingers.

She paused, logout screen hovering. “Yes?”

“Ere you depart - Allow me to treat you to a few of F’lhaminn’s Fira Fancies. As congratulations.”

She looked over at him with an odd expression. “For...what, exactly?”

“For successfully making it to Mor Dhona?” He withered slightly under her slightly unimpressed gaze. “Or something? You did say you were hungry. I am fair certain you can’t possibly say you’ve had them before.”

Her eyebrow lifted. “You do know VR food doesn’t actually make you full?” 

G’raha blushed, a slight pout tugging at his lip (not that he’d ever admit it).

“W-well,” he stuttered. “...technically, yes.”

Cethys looked down and shook her head, shoulders quaking slightly. His face fell.

Great, she was probably laughing at him now.

Whatever. It was fine.

She glanced back up at him, smiling. “Oh, alright. As long as we make it quick.” 

More than fine.

He grinned at her and led the way upstairs to the cafe.

  


\--

  


“I think I’ll go for Red Mage,” she said in between bites. “It’s what got me interested in Eorzea Online to begin with, actually.”

“A Red Mage?”

“Yeah, but I can’t even unlock it as a class until I reach level 50.” She turned her attention back to her food as he sized her up. He couldn’t tell too much about her build with her caster robes hiding the finer details, but if her earlier actions were any indication she certainly had the potential to flourish as one, he thought. 

Cethys pulled up her character sheet. “I’d actually wanted to start out as a Rogue, but that wasn’t an option…” He read her rather sparse details backwards as she frowned at them.

<Duelist> Cethys Flamerose  
(Not a member of a Grand Company)   
(Not a member of a Free Company)  
THM 23 MIN 14  
WVR 12 ALC 8

  


“And, well, I haven’t actually reached Limsa Lominsa yet. So I picked a caster for now.”

“If you haven’t reached Limsa, how-”

“-did I get Mercury?” She finished for him.

He nodded.

“I have an ‘in’, you might say - I can’t name names, of course, but I was able to get one of the prototype units. Since it’d had the beta installed prior to that whole virus thing, the chocobo came as a gift with my game.” 

G’raha frowned. “I’ve never heard of that campaign.”

She shrugged. “That’s what the person who gave it to me said. But anyway - back to my point. Red mage is clearly the way to go.”

“You said you started playing as a Thaumaturge, did you not?”

She nodded. 

“Then you might consider,” he suggested thoughtfully, tapping at her stats, “a Black Mage would do more damage than a Red Mage overall. And you already have the robes for the part.”

Cethys shook her head. “Yes, but - No. It’s too slow for me. I like to keep moving.” She pushed the sleeve of her robe back up from where it had begun to slide down towards her plate. “And I hear trying to keep up Enochian at higher levels is a royal pain in the arse.”

He coughed, hiding a smile.

“Plus, I’d be able to heal myself as a Red Mage,” she pointed out cheerfully, gesturing with the remainder of her sandwich. “Black Mage can’t do that.”

“But if you have a healer-”

“A healer’s not the same-”

A deep voice interrupted the two of them. “While this conversation is simply fascinating, if you two lovebirds could kindly move - This table’s reserved, you see.” They looked up at the tall hrothgar and his companion, a rather fierce-looking viera with a glowing bow, before his words registered. G’raha’s ears flattened. Lovebirds-? 

“Er-”

Cethys seemed to think the same, if the way her tail stiffened was any indication. “Oh- I- We aren’t-” 

“Friends, then. Whatever. Could we have our spot now?” The archer rubbed her forehead and pinched the bridge of her nose. 

“Sure thing. It’s just as well, Noah.” Cethys glanced at him sidelong and stood up from the table. “My stomach is starting to complain - my real one, that is. But we should do this again sometime.” 

“Nothing would make me more delighted,” he replied, happy for the distraction and invitation both as he cleared away their dishes. His notifications pinged.

Cethys Flamerose has sent you a Friend Request!  
Accept? Y/N

He tapped Yes, ignoring the warm feeling in his chest as she smiled at him.

“Then I’ll see you around.” And with that, she logged off and vanished before his eyes.

\--

In the coming days, rumors began to spread of the first waves of Tempered PCs - player characters who, for whatever reason, after dying in certain boss fights, could no longer control their own bodies or actions. It was the first major bug that FAL LLC had run into since the B4H4.mt calamity and every HR representative currently had their hands full trying to juggle the public response in the gaming community. 

With each player that became Tempered, it seemed, the stronger the regional bosses became, and they were eventually termed Primals for their unmatched ferocity and unbridled fear they inspired in those few who managed to barely escape and get the word out. Grand Companies and Free Companies alike did their best, but with people not wanting to lose their hard-earned gear and experience, it was fair difficult to get anyone to sign up for what could have been a potentially game-breaking trial.

And then, two weeks later, someone defeated one.

Alone.


	4. Misbegotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Krile, who is a little overwhelmed by everything she’s taken over from Galuf, has a little chat about working too hard.
> 
> Cethys would really like a glass of water and some air conditioning right about now. But she’d settle for not being attacked by a flame-breathing giant. 
> 
> G’raha logs in to Eorzea Online later that night just in time to receive a mysterious message.

“So - how are your classes coming along?” Krile nonchalantly asked, sending the email she’d been working on and turning back to her almost-brother. “Learned anything new recently?”

“As a matter of fact, I have.” G’raha had a textbook opened in his lap, his feet propped up on the arm of the settee in her office as if he owned the place. “Were you aware the cafeteria no longer gives out free birthday cakes? Tataru was quite disappointed. I’m afraid she’s put them on the naughty list.”

I mean technically, they both  _ did  _ actually own the place, but her name was first on the lease - that counted, right?

“I’m serious, Raha.” She rolled her eyes at him as she sorted through her half-graded exams. “Just because you’re top in your year in the department doesn’t mean you can ignore your classes. I know I’m only your  _ unofficial  _ advisor, but it would be remiss of me not to at least say something.” 

“You wound me, Krile. Have you not known me my entire life?” he asked, playfully scowling.

“Yes, and that’s why I  _ asked.” _ Krile gave him a Look. “Everyone I know has been spending more and more time in that gods-forsaken game. Alisaie I might have expected, but Alphinaud? And I don’t know where Tataru even finds the  _ time _ with all the work she handles for everyone.”

“Your niece and nephew are doing just fine on their own. Alisaie’s actually been giving me quite the challenge, not that I’d ever tell her.” He grinned ruefully.  _ “Tataru _ just knows how to balance her responsibilities - A useful skill, one might add, that you ought to consider picking up yourself.” 

She frowned. She’d been feeling tired lately, but was hoping he hadn’t noticed. A fool’s errand, she supposed. He had always been rather closely observant of the people he cared about.

“Just because Galuf left you his share in the company does not mean you have to take on the responsibility for it in its entirety,” G’raha said gently, sitting up and gesturing at the stacks of folders full of paperwork. “You have more than enough to handle already. Are you not still the head contact at Echo Developers?”

“They’re all contractors-” she protested weakly.

“And the Leveilleur Research Foundation?”

“The twins have that well in hand-”

“My  _ point, _ Krile.” He shut the book with a  _ snap _ and stood up to stretch. “You  _ must  _ stop overextending yourself. I understand full well that you have deadlines to meet - I have more than my own fair share, myself.” He took and refilled her mug from the remainders of that morning’s teapot. (Or at least, he rather hoped it was from that morning.) “There is only one of you, my friend. Be sure to take care of yourself - understood?” 

“I’m supposed to be taking care of  _ you, _ you know. All the same - you have my thanks. For caring.” Krile sipped her tea and sighed gratefully, easing back into the ergonomic office chair. “Now get back to studying, you  _ and  _ your oversized heart.”  


“Well it’s to match my brain, you see-” 

G’raha retreated hastily from her office, laughing as she reached for the oft-thrown stuffed coeurl. “I’m going, I’m going!”

  
  


\--

  
  


“Mercury, what’s wrong?”

He trilled, trembling as he carded his beak through her hair, and then disappeared as the 30 minute timer ran out. Cethys cursed and rechecked her inventory, but as she’d thought - completely out of Gysahl Greens. 

She opened the Teleport menu - or tried to, anyway - and received an error message instead:

That command is currently unavailable.

Guess there was no going out to buy more for the time being. She groaned internally at the Hunt bill that had gotten her into this mess. Some funny hardcore players thought they’d get one over on the sprouts. “It’s just a small group of easy beastkin,” the smirking Elezen had said, handing it over to her. “No big deal, even for a Thaumaturge. Just take a few potions and you’ll be fine.”

Given the fact that they were now surrounded and being escorted through a cave by Amalj’aa who were over twice her level, she sincerely begged to differ.

Cethys glanced over at the other players. Were they just as nervous as she was? Her tail twirled around uneasily, unable to wrap around her leg with her robes in the way.

“This is one hell of an event,” one of them muttered, looking warily around the tunnel as it opened up into a fiery cavern. “Course, I might’ve liked it a bit better without all the kidnapping.”

“Event?” she tried to whisper surreptitiously back. “What event?”

“You pay attention to community forum? No?” A auri woman said quietly in an accented voice from beside her. “You see the priest? The markings of the wall? This is the Bowl of Embers - home of Ifrit himself.”

Cethys thought. “One of the primals everyone keeps talking about?” The woman nodded.

“I hoped to not see this place. If my character is destroyed…” She shivered despite the heat. “And I can not afford to buy a new game right now. The jobs of my village, they have all gone to Garlemald. There is no work for me.”

The amalj’aa started their chanting. Another player cursed. “It’s not letting me log out! How in the bloody  _ hells  _ do I file a bug report?”

_ It’s just a game,  _ Cethys internally reassured herself as the rather convincing-looking fire the primal controlled grew larger and larger. _ It’s going to be okay.  _ She closed her eyes and braced herself for impact as she felt the Manaward she’d cast earlier break.

The wall of flames licked at her face like a scorching,  _ angry  _ caress that flowed around and through her, even worse than the midday desert winds of Southern Thanalan. 

Then as suddenly as it arrived - it was gone. But, even as sensitive as her ears were, she did not hear the chime of a respawn menu appearing.

Cethys opened her eyes and looked around. 

The other prisoners that had been escorted with her to the Bowl of Embers were - to a player - immobile at 1 HP, just like the whispers had said. Their eyes were dimmed, bodies nearly translucent, and the edges of their character model emitted unintelligible strings and ones and zeroes that floated towards the primal and his Amalj’aa chieftain. One by one their numbers sparked, caught flame and disappeared into thin air, and their character names and titles along with them - leaving naught but the empty, transparent husks behind.

It was almost as if their data was burned right out of them, she thought, rattled. She waved a hand in front of the auri woman from earlier. No response.

Yet she alone was unscathed. 

She checked her HP. Untouched, even.

How?

_ I see… Thou hast been claimed by another... _

The primal’s voice echoed painfully in her mind. She tugged at her ears, pulled her hair to get at her aching temples - and found her forehead was seemingly burning with fever. What did he mean, ‘claimed’? 

_ It is of no consequence. I shall reduce all who oppose me to ashes - thyself shall be no exception!  _ The Lord of the Inferno roared and a blast of fire exploded outward, shockwave pushing her to the back of the flame-ringed arena as his HP bar finally appeared overhead.

Cethys staggered, straightened back up, and readied her meager thaumaturge skills, heart pounding. If it was a fight he wanted, she would be more than happy to oblige. She wasn’t exactly at the best level for this, but, based on what she had just seen - She didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. Not if she wanted to ever leave Thanalan. 

Time to fight fire with fire. 

Literally.

\--

_ Ping! _

G’raha looked up to see the flashing New Message icon at the corner of his vision.

Who would be sending him a letter at this time of night? He opened his map to find the nearest Mognet location.  _ Possibly Alisaie, _ he mused as he made his way towards the Aftcastle.  _ She always did like to train during the witching hours. _

He reached the mail carrier and thanked the overly-fluttery moogle as they handed over the envelope.

It was not Alisaie.

From: Cethys Flamerose  
To: Noah Legacy

Noah,

In the interest of sharing some rather intriguing information (which I know you love)...

You know the tales that have been going around?  
About the Primals, and their victims?  
Well, long story short - I found out they’re not just rumors.

Something weird happened to my character at Zan’rak. I have to show you - I can’t describe it here. Not as eloquent as you Studium folk and couldn’t think of the right words if I tried. :) 

Meet me at the Waking Sands, day after tomorrow, 18:00 SST. Tataru knows to expect you. 

(How in the world does that woman know _everyone_?)

Take care,  
Cethys

  
  



	5. Flames of Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nero tol Scaeva is having a rather frustrating morning. 
> 
> Cethys talks about what happened at the Bowl of Embers.
> 
> And someone unexpected makes an unwelcome appearance.

Five to six years ago, if you had asked Cid Garlond, former head of technical support at Garlean Information Technologies, he would have told you (in many words of varying vulgarity) that the tech department itself really should have been two entirely separate ones - one for IT and one for R&D. 

Ideally, it would also have been two entirely separate  _ buildings  _ \- that way the intermittent explosions coming from the chaotic R&D troupe whose driving motto was “The only difference between conducting science and merely blowing stuff up is writing it down” wouldn’t cause the entire department to evacuate while they waited half an hour for the fire department to show up. 

Again.

Maybe that was why the man had quit.

Unfortunately for Nero, Gaius van Baelsar - illustrious chairman of the board, had no time to think about devoting funds to such an “unnecessary” separation. Neither did he have any sympathies for the delicate handling required to fix a most unusual bug that had never shown up before in  _ any _ simulations they had run - and somehow appeared to be coming at the system network both externally and internally besides.

  
Much as he wished all he had to was (as the man had so charmingly put it) “push whatever damn button that fixes the bloody issue”, it wasn’t quite that simple.

Alas.

Nero was not (by  _ anyone’s  _ standards) a simple, fresh-green, graduate-level technician when it came to fixing the system. He’d learned enough by now that 99.99% of whatever  _ could  _ go wrong, he had most likely either seen before or knew how to quickly find the solution to. Unexpected power surges? Easy reset. Graphic bugs and typos? Fine. (Why did they even  _ call  _ him for those, honestly?) Backend server outages during the middle of a firmware update? Annoying, but a piece of cake.

But reports of player characters  _ literally _ dissolving and their data being irrecoverably corrupted?

Well...that was new. Entirely so.

The management team had never quite seen  _ this _ unprecedented level of chaos before. And his untrained underlings that he had been assigned were nowhere near the level of capability that he was used to working with. Nero was honestly  _ this _ close to throwing a wrench at someone if it only would make him feel better. 

“How close are we to completing a trace?” he barked at one of the interns.

She looked up at him. “Tracing the data corruption or the source of the signal we’ve been getting, sir?”

Nero rolled his eyes. “Whichever one you’re having more success with.” 

“That would be neither of them, then,” she replied glumly.

He groaned. Loathe as he was to admit it to himself, he could have really used Garlond’s expertise right about now. Not that he would  _ ever _ breathe a word to the man about it if he saw him again.

Livia walked up behind him with two cups of black coffee. “Morning, Scaeva. Did you see the Chairman’s newest post on the Hub?”

Nero sighed and took one. “No. What has he done now?”

The woman had the gall to snicker at him. “It’s… better if you see it yourself.” She pulled it up on her terminal and he leaned over her shoulder to better read it.

  
  


  
  


They sat there in silence. 

“Are you sure-”

“Yes, I’m positive we can’t ban him from the Forums; we’ve tried it before and he threw an absolute fit.”

“Damn.”

Nero rubbed his temples, drained his cup, and left to retrieve his tablet from the charging station. Time to get back to work.

  
  


\--

  
  


“It’s all anyone’s been talking about!” Tataru said as she sat the steaming kettle down and hopped up on the bench. “The forums are positively  _ abuzz _ with the news. Everyone’s been trying to figure out who it was.”

“I know,” Cethys moaned unhappily, dropping her head to the table in frustration. “I just wanted to get some gil from an easy hunt mark and  _ maybe _ a level or two. Was that too much to ask, Tataru?”

“Apparently so. Here, have some tea - you’ll feel better.” 

The two of them sat in an otherwise-empty room in the Waking Sands, waiting for the remaining members of their meeting to show up. The small house used to be the headquarters of the mysterious Free Company “Circle of Knowing” before the calamity, but there were so few of them to begin with that even after everything was rebuilt, nobody had heard heads nor tails of them. It had since been taken over by an equally strange Elezen player who professed to claim it for “The Seventh Dawn” in rather incomprehensible terms. Nobody bothered to dispute him (as the less they were subjected to whatever archaic nonsense speech he was attempting to communicate to them in, the better) and thus, it remained the <Scion> FC headquarters.

The door opened. “Am I late?”

“Thancred!” Tataru called delightedly as the roguish man stepped through the entryway. “Who is that you’ve brought with you?”

“Oh, you know, just what the coeurl dragged in,” he called back, manhandling a rather harassed-looking older lalafell.

The mage finally got free of his captor’s hold and shook himself off. “Honestly, I only  _ just _ got back from vacation and you’re already-” he cut himself off as he spotted Cethys. “Who is this?”

_ “This,” _ interjected Tataru before Thancred could snip back at him, “is your missing Primal-slayer - which you would know if you actually attended the meeting, Papalymo. Where’s your other half?”

“Yda’s not logging on today, she has track practice.” He hopped onto the bench and gratefully accepted the hot cup of tea Tataru passed him. “And both Minfilia and Y’shtola are busy meeting with the board of directors today. So-” Papalymo scrutinized Cethys with a piercing gaze. “You’re the one who defeated Ifrit, are you?”

Cethys had a hard time keeping all the names straight. “Er, well... Yes, I suppose I did…” she trailed off at seeing everyone’s attention fixated on her. “I wasn’t expecting all of you- Aren’t we waiting for-”

_ -Knock!- _

“-someone else?” she finished weakly as Tataru jumped down to get the door.

G’raha stood outside, hands twisting at his sleeve nervously. “Oh hello- Tataru! It  _ is _ you, thank goodness. I had begun to worry I misplaced the location.”

“It’s been quite a while, G-Noah,” Tataru corrected herself as his eyes momentarily grew wide. He nodded back. “Right! You’re just in time.” She let him in, shutting and locking the door behind him before heading back to her spot next to Papalymo on the bench. “Have a seat.” She gestured to the empty seat next to Cethys.

The blue-haired miqo’te waved meekly to him. “I wasn’t expecting so many. Sorry to spring it on you,” she said as he sat down next to her.

“No, no - it’s fine.” He glanced around. The others all seemed to be looking at him curiously - or more likely, looking at Cethys. He was only there at her request, after all -  _ she _ was the star of the show.

“So, shall we begin?” Papalymo stood up, opening a small command menu. 

> /mode sc.dev  
>  **Developer Mode** activated.  
>  /run simlog ckalla-01 2,2,0  
>  Now playing simulated recording “ckalla-01”.

“If I could ask you to turn your attention to the projection in the middle of the table,” Papalymo requested as the hologram flickered into being. Cethys and G’raha leaned forward.

It was strange, seeing everything that had happened the other day in miniature form. It was more or less the same, barring the lack of sound and detail, up until the group reaching the cavern, and then Ifrit attacked - and the other players in the hologram completely disappeared.

“Huh,” she mused wonderingly. “That’s not what happened. At least, not to my memory.”

“And thus you see our problem.” Papalymo said, ending the recording with a quick macro. “All of our testing, recording devices, you name it - Nothing actually captures the details properly. The only evidence we have been able to go on are eyewitness accounts, and as I’m sure you can imagine, those are few and far between.” He frowned.

“In other words,” Thancred says, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on the table (ignoring Tataru’s protests “Hey! We  _ eat _ there, you know!”), “the corruption that affects the player characters themselves also corrupts any attempts we try to capture it actually happening.”

“So what actually  _ did  _ happen, Cethys?” G’raha asked. 

She looked over at him. “Well…”

  
  


\--

  
  


Burning chains? Painfully removed.

Infernal nails? Successfully exploded.

Primal? Cethys looked up to check its health bar. Nearly there. She dodged another blast and sent a fissure of ice at Ifrit while she waited for her mana to recover. Honestly, she couldn’t believe she’d made it this far. (It seemed to be a common pattern, now.)

The wall of fire blasted her back again. She struggled to stand up. If she’d only been able to have a tank to absorb some of the damage… But all of the other players were just as she’d left them. 

She checked her stock of potions as she finally struggled to her feet, cursing. She had to finish this - and fast. Cethys raised her staff, readying the limit break she’d meant to save for later - but she didn’t really have a choice at this point. 

Ifrit roared with laughter.  _ You think one little meteor will stop me? _

She ignored the pounding in her head as the primal charged her. The cast was almost-

_ WHAM. _

Cethys wheezed painfully, knocked flat on her back for the third time in as many hits. 

Not here, she thought to herself as she stared up at the ceiling. Not now. But she was so tired.

Surely, she thought, she could just close her eyes, only for a moment. Right?

And then a woman’s voice called to her.

“h e a r . . .”

Who was that? 

“f e e l . . .”

A rush of energy. She opened her eyes in time to roll out of the path of Ifrit’s fist. 

“t h i n k . . .”

What was she thinking? Cethys shook her head, stood up, and charged the limit break again. No giving up. No interruptions this time, she thought, activating Surecast. The wall of flames rushed through her again to no effect, and then -

“Starstorm!” she shouted.

\- the infinite skies opened, and a veritable  _ rain _ of meteors came crashing down.

Ifrit’s health fell to zero, and with a final roar the primal fell and dissolved into the same fiery code-looking bits that she had seen before. They swirled around her, and then with a blinding flash they coalesced, merging into a reddish-orange crystalline chunk of solid data. 

Cethys held it in her hands, breathing heavily. 

She had won.

\--

The Scions sat in silence as she finished the story. 

“And what happened to the other players?” G’raha asked curiously.

She shook her head. “They didn’t come back after the primal was defeated.”

He sighed despondently. “If only it were that simple.”

Papalymo frowned in thought. “Do you recall hearing that voice since?”

She didn’t even know who it  _ was _ . She’d never heard the like before - and certainly not since.

“...No,” she said finally. “I haven’t.”

  
  


\--

  
  


_ I just have to keep my head down.  _ Cethys thought, walking back alone to Horizon.  _ The Scions… I don’t know who they are or what they want.  _

They had finished up the meeting shortly after with friendly goodbyes and assurances to “keep in touch” (doubling her Contacts List in the process) and yet - If Tataru hadn’t taken the time to personally vouch for all of them to her (even the members that couldn’t make it), she would have teleported out right then and there and called the whole thing off.

As it was, she still held reservations about the group as a whole. The Seventh Dawn would probably be able to help her figure out what was going on with - well, with everything, really. But she had just wanted to be a regular player - complete with inane fetch quests and mundane adventures. She should leave these sort of things to the experts.

Sighing to herself, she shook her head and continued on up the path. Nothing was ever that simple, was it? At least she had gotten to see Noah again briefly, even if he did get roped into tea with Tataru right after. Apparently they’d had some “catching up” to do.

  


“Ah, there you are. We’ve been looking for you.”

Cethys looked back towards the sound of the voice, and saw a mysterious man in a black and purple robe was walking towards her. She looked around - surely, he wasn’t talking to her?

Alas, no such luck. The area was deserted.

Strangely, the man had no character name floating above his head. She’d never seen the like, except for in the tempered. “Who are you?” she asked, frowning.

“You may address me as Lahabrea.” The hooded man waved his hand dismissively. “I am here to greet you on behalf of S.C. End User Enterprise - a small IT business, nothing too fancy, but we do contract work on occasion for FAL - and we could not help but notice your  _ fascinating _ exchange earlier.”

Cethys frowned warily. “Regarding…?”

“Why, the primal you defeated, of course.” He smiled. “Or as they are  _ properly _ termed, eikons.” 

She stiffened and reached for her horned staff. Great, who  _ else  _ knew?

“Easy,  _ easy  _ \- I did not come here to fight.” He held his hands out, as if to show his defenselessness. “In fact, we’d like to congratulate you on such a  _ stirring _ battle, you see. We had resigned ourselves to being the only ones to try and solve this unsettling chain of events.” Lahabrea began to pace back and forth. “And yet, here you are - with your data still unexpectedly intact. One must wonder how it might have come to be…” He trailed off, looking her up and down.

“What do you want?” This guy was giving her the creeps. It was like Ilberd all over again. If only Merlwyb could threaten away  _ this _ one, too.

She resolved to speak with commander Rhiki as soon as she got the opportunity.

“Such mistrust, intrepid mage -  _ Cethys, _ was it not?”

She wished for not the last time that she had picked something else for her character’s given name, but knew she’d have a hard time remembering to respond to anything else. 

Lahabrea shook his head at her wary silence. “Like I said, adventurer, I am here to offer our  _ congratulations.” _ He waved his hand, and a few scroll items appeared in front of her. She took a moment to read their item descriptions.

One Retainer’s Adventure?

Writ of Fantasia?

_ Character Level Editor?  _ Her eyes widened. 

  
  


“Limited, one-of-a-kind items, you see. Before  _ Louisoix,” _ he spat, “made the unfortunately  _ public  _ declaration that FAL LLC would never take real payment for virtual items or currency, we had briefly begun to toy with the idea of an optional online shop.” Lahabrea sighed. “The old man never did understand our motivations. But he was kind enough to leave them for us in the Source code nonetheless.”

Cethys’ eyes narrowed. “If they’re so rare, why are you offering them to me?”

“You are correct, of course. Such a rare boon - we couldn’t possibly give these out to you for free, you understand.” He looked at her sidelong from beneath his hood. “Eikon-slayer or not.” 

There it was. She knew there was a catch. “So in exchange, all I’d have to do…?” 

“We simply ask that you practice a little more  _ discretion, _ is all - especially regarding  _ those _ people,” Lahabrea smoothly replied, gesturing broadly. “The SC End team are well equipped and prepared to handle the current, ah,  _ situation. _ And we wouldn’t want everyone to  _ panic, _ as I’m sure you’d agree - would you not?”

“I was planning to do that anyway.” She frowned. Now that he’d gone so far as to mysteriously ask her to, though…

It made her want to shout it from the rooftops. 

He smiled, as if he’d heard exactly what he had wanted to. “Then there should be no problems in the slightest. I’m glad we could come to an accord - but have no doubt that we’ll be watching you closely, eikon-slayer.” He bowed to her, stepped backwards, and vanished into a swirling dark violet portal just as quickly as he had arrived.

  
  


She stared at the empty space where Lahabrea had stood, scrolls clenched in her fist. 

Now what was  _ that _ all about?


	6. Under the Weight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cethys listens to a mentor talk about the burden of responsibility, and having it thrust upon you. 
> 
> Elsewhere, G’raha and a friend look for newfound knowledge at the height of sophistication - and a very tall hill.

Cethys stared down her opponent. _“You’re_ the one who picked Reverse, you know.”

“Yeah, I know…” R’ashaht Rhiki of the Maelstrom stared at her cards glumly. “I wouldn’t be in trouble if you would just-”

“Absolutely not. Plus is the _worst_ rule and I will _stand by this_.”

The marauder groaned. “Fine.” She placed down her ineffective behemoth card. “But for the record, I would totally whoop your arse in a regular game with _my_ rules.”

“That’s why neither of us play for MGP, isn’t it?” 

“No, just for dinner, which is almost _worse_.” 

“Have you ever known me to pick anything you didn’t like?” Cethys placed her last card down. “And I believe the match goes to me.”

“So it does.” R’ashaht gathered her deck with a sigh and put it away. “I’m glad you accepted the Admiral’s offer, but if I’d have known it would mean having to buy you fresh q’abobs every other night-”

“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t like them.” Cethys stood up and dusted her robes off. “Besides, they always save you the fresh snurble ones now since we’ve been going there so often.”

The other miqo'te’s ears perked up. “True!”

- _Crash_!-

They both turned to the door. 

“Were you expecting-” 

It opened, and a haggard-looking Maelstrom officer ran in and saluted. “Beggin’ your pardon, High Commander-”

She rushed to him, laying a hand on his shoulder to steady the man. “Easy, lad. Breathe. What’s the trouble?”

“The kobolds-” he coughed. The brunette handed him her flask and he drained it, taking a few deep breaths before continuing. “The kobold mobs have sealed off O'ghomoro. Our data parsers are- the readings are all saying they mean to trigger the Titan event.”

Cethys inhaled sharply. No, she thought. Not again. I promised myself to stay out of this.

“When is the Company of Heroes arriving?” 

The man shook his head. “They disbanded - I just checked the FC listings. We need to recall the upper units. It’s getting bad.”

“Tell me everything,” Commander Rhiki says, all business. 

  
  
  
  


\--

  
  
  


“No. Absolutely not.”

The high commander followed her through the docks as she marched towards the Aleport ferry. “I don’t blame you for not wanting to, Cethys but you’re the only-”

“ _No_ , I said.” The taller miqo’te sighed and ran her hand through blue and crimson hair. “I told myself I’d stay out of this.” To say nothing of the mysterious man in black, she thought, guiltily remembering the scrolls she’d tucked away into her Key Items. 

Neither of them noticed the pair of eyes tracking the two of them curiously.

“Then who else can we ask?” R’ashaht waved her hand at the nearly-empty pier emphatically. “You’ve _seen_ what these things do to people. How can you-”

“Because I _don’t want_ to, okay?” Cethys stopped in her tracks, throwing her hands up. “I didn’t ask for _this_. I don’t even know what this is. I just want to-” She cut herself off and sighed. 

The brunette looked at her, smiling sadly yet knowingly. She joined Cethys on the stone fence outside the Dutiful Sisters’ house. They sat there in silence for a while and watched the waves. 

“I didn’t ask to become High Commander, you know,” she said eventually.

Cethys said nothing, but watched her from the corner of her vision.

“I didn’t even want to be part of a Grand Company, at first. I thought the storyline was too simplified, too cliche. Admiral Bloefhiswyn tracked me down in here and convinced me otherwise. And now I find myself with a command of my very own.” She kicked at a rock just out of reach on the stone path below them. “It’s not easy, being responsible for other people. And sometimes- Sometimes, it breaks your heart. Knowing that if anything happens to them or if anything goes wrong, you’ll be the one blamed.”

“Are you trying to convince me or not?” Cethys asked wryly. 

“That depends,” R’ashaht replied, “on if you’re going to allow me to continue to try and convince you - or if you’re just waiting for me to finish talking so you can leave.”

The thaumaturge rolled her eyes and shrugged.

“So a bit of both, then,” she sighed in response. “Right.” The high commander twiddled her thumbs, trying to gather her thoughts. “But in the end, d’you know what I realized? It’s not about what I want or how I feel, you know?” She jabbed a thumb in the direction of the Aftcastle. “It’s about them. About my city. These are my people, now. No matter where I was from, or who I was before the calamity and before the Admiral saw something in me that she - for whatever reason - saw fit to give her time and attention to.” She opened her inventory and materialized two q’abobs, passing one to the melancholy Maelstrom private. “For her to go out on a limb - and in the aboveground no less - I can only presume she saw something in you, too.” She took a big bite of mushroom and chewed thoughtfully.

Cethys looked at the skewer in her hand. 

_“But I have a strong feeling you’re going to be somebody big there. ... You of all people know I’m hardly ever wrong, Cethys.”_

That’s what Merlwyb had said, wasn’t it?

Maybe it was worth giving it a go - Well, for now, anyway.

She finished off the q’abobs with R’ashaht and watched the sun set peacefully across the waves that lapped at the harbor.

  
  


\--

  
  


The Librarium Sum Logi of the Sharlayan Studium sat like a glittering diamond at the top of the tallest hill in Val. Its bright white rooftop sat upon bright white columns, upon which the words "Dico me scire et quod sum ignobilis" (I say that I know and that I am unknown) were lovingly inscribed, and every day at exactly 6 bells past sunrise the sun shone directly through the stained glass skylight to cast the white-marbled floor in all manners of varying rainbow-like colours.

That said, had the Baldesion University’s smaller Cabinet of Curiosity actually had the resources Lyna and G’raha were looking for, they’d much rather have gone there, beautiful architecture in the Studium or no. There were no trams nor teleporters to the top of the hill - instead one had to climb all seven hundred seventy-seven stairs to reach their destination.

Yet for all the convenience of the much less exhausting journey to the Cabinet, it had yet to catch up to modern-day digital archive cataloguing features - and G’raha had already perused Baldesion University’s selection of Allagan tomes besides. Thus - it was to the more infamous library at the top of this more-than-ridiculously high number of stairs that they made their way in the pursuit of ancient knowledge.

  
  
  


“I think I found something.” Lyna said some hours later, peering intently at her terminal.  
  


G’raha glanced up across the desk at the lavender-haired viera who had been a steadfast friend and an invaluable help in his research projects besides. It looked like today would be no different than usual. “On what, pray tell?”

“It seems to be mostly centered on the dormant Allagan ruins in southeastern Mor Dhona. I shall send it to you presently.” She tapped a few buttons and the archive link transferred to his station with a short ding! “The Crystal Tower, I believe it was.”

He opened the file. “The Crystal Tower, hm? They’ve recreated that in Eorzea Online, did you know?” G’raha skimmed the table of contents, humming thoughtfully. “Of course, since nobody is able to get inside the real thing, people have only been able to speculate about what’s inside. Some say they’ve added a Labyrinth to the exterior so that nobody can get into the virtual one either.”

“Oh, I highly doubt that.” Lyna smiled. “The game has its own ways of keeping people out of certain locations. Or else people would be traipsing around all sorts of places they’re not quite meant to be in.”

“You might be surprised,” he replied. “I met someone who found a way into Mor Dhona at level twenty-three, if you’ll believe that.”

“Twenty-” She stopped and met his eyes, eyebrows raised. “And they were still alive?”

“Well, I might have helped her out a bit.”

Lyna sighed. “Of course you did. Did you manage to keep your mouth shut this time, or did you say something ridiculously sappy and heroic like you always try to do?”

He flushed. She knew him too well. “Only a bit!”

“I’m sure,” she muttered.

They fell into an amicable silence while they continued to research. The history of Allag was, in and of itself, quite the fascinating topic. The late civilization was the source of many advancements in science and technology. It was a bit of a shame that their cultural priorities didn’t include self-preservation.

He couldn’t figure out what Lyna had found, though. “Something” was a rather bit too ambiguous of a description to go on.

“What was it in here that you had meant to show me?” he asked as she looked up from her paperwork. “Lovely as this archive is, I’ll be here all day if you mean for me to read the entire thing. Not that I’d complain, but...”

“Look at the footnote in the appendix,” she said, coming around the table to peer over his shoulder as he tapped through the navigation. “I think I remember highlighting it… there! See?”

He followed her finger to see what she was pointing at.

And stared.

  
  


_120, 423, 513 Eureka Project, G. Baldesion_

  
  


“Well?” asked Lyna, tentatively. “Do you believe the climb up here was worth it, now?


	7. Best Laid Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tale of two tech engineers. 
> 
> And more coffeehouse shenanigans.

“Cid, I could have sworn we said no more flying mechs this patch.” Jessie tapped her steel-capped toes impatiently. 

The man actually had the nerve to groan at her. It wasn’t  _ her _ fault they were over budget and behind schedule. Again.

“Okay, but that was before-”

_ “And,” _ she interrupted, “you said that we wouldn’t make any more changes to the Ironworks line, but I’ve seen no less than  _ five _ design augmentation requests come across my desk in the past week.

“Well-”

_ “Five, _ Cid!” 

He rubbed his head sheepishly. “Did you see the sales analysis I submitted? The new classes’ weapons are practically flying off the shelves.”

Jessie sighed. “Okay, that’s true, but that doesn’t let you off the hook. Where’s the budget reports you said you’d have for me today?”

“Right here.” He handed over a binder. “And there’s a little something extra in there for you, too.

She brightened up immediately. “Is it-”

“As promised.”

Jessie grinned. “About time!” 

  
  
  


The product design team at the Splendors Emporium didn’t have a whole lot of people to its roster, but what it lacked in numbers it made up for in sheer stubbornness and personality - and their output quality was nothing to scoff at, either. When they could get their projects done on time, that was.

Still, for all their personality quirks, the team certainly got along well. It helped that Cid had been doing this for what seemed like ages, and the people he worked with appreciated his ingenuity and determination to see things through - no matter how long they took. 

Elsewhere, on the other hand,  _ some _ people had to grudgingly cooperate with coworkers that seemed determined to be deliberately unhelpful no matter how many clients they had or how many open tickets they had yet to resolve successfully.

  
  
  


“Big man wants to see you, Scaeva.” Livia said as Nero was leaving his small yet blessedly soundproof office. 

He paused. “Again?” 

She smirked. “Again. What’d you do, move his recycle bin?”

“Not recently, but he might have somehow done it himself.” Nero sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He had run out of coffee five hours ago and the day had just gone downhill from there. “How much do you want to bet he just locked himself out of the login screen?”

Livia looked up at him and chuckled mercilessly. “I’m not an idiot. No bet.”

“Figures.” He mentally steeled himself for what looked to be a grueling end to the day and reversed directions to head towards the much more lavishly decorated executive wing of the office.

As it turned out, he had good reason to be wary. Forty-five minutes in and he was still nowhere closer to explaining to the man he’d downloaded something that wasn’t supposed to be on his computer.

  


“No, the lady isn’t  _ meant _ to be there, sir.” 

Nero rubbed his eyes, trying to maintain some small semblance of sanity. Really, he had no business playing tech support when he had a server-wide crisis going on, but - well, money talked, and Gaius was one of the loudest people in the business.

“She isn’t there  _ every _ time - look, she’s gone now, see?”

Figuratively and literally.

“Every-? She isn’t supposed to be there at  _ all!” _

The man shrugged at him. “Just fix the damn internet and you can go back to whatever game you were playing or something. I swear, why we even pay you guys beats me…” 

The “game” in question was Eorzea Online, of course, the product they were trying to actually fix. One would think the Chairman would actually know such an important detail, but such things were beneath him - as long as his dividends continued to come in, he didn’t really care too much about the whole thing. 

Nero was not necessarily known for his patience normally, nor his self-control. However, he  _ did _ like having a job and getting paid for it, so he gritted his teeth and got on with the diagnostics. 

“And you didn’t touch my pictures, right?” Gaius asked dubiously, fiddling with his imported black pearl cufflinks. “I need those working right to do my job.”

“No, sir, all of your _twenty-seven desktop_ _shortcuts_ are exactly as you left them.” Because if they weren’t, he’d raise hell about it, of course. Barely holding in a sigh, Nero plugged the network cable back in, leaving the half-clad auri woman gif alone as requested. “Just don’t touch this wire again and you should be fine.” 

Honestly, if he didn’t strangle the man with it by the day’s end, it would be a miracle. 

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


“One black coffee for Y’shtola?” Cethys called out to the bustling coffee bar.

A white-haired miqote’s ears pricked up, and she gestured Cethys over with a wave of her manicured nails, not turning her attentions away from the novel she was engrossed in. 

“Here you are, miss.” She set the drink down and turned back to busy herself rearranging the pastry display when-

“Wait.” Y’shtola looked up suddenly. “I know you.” 

“Er-” Cethys felt like a morphos pinned to a wall by the sudden focus in the woman’s eyes. “I’m sorry, are you a regular? It’s hard for me to remember faces-”

“No, not  _ here.” _ Y’shtola waved away her comment. “But I know you, or rather - I know  _ of _ you.” She glanced around quickly, making sure she couldn’t be overheard. “You’re  _ that _ Cethys, aren’t you?”

Cethys covered up her nametag involuntarily. “Who?”

“The one Thancred wanted me to talk to about the primals. From the Maelstrom.”

“Ah...” Cethys looked down, awkwardly. Maybe, just maybe, if she just ignored her-

“Y’shtola! Fancy seeing you here!” A lalafell with wavy golden hair hopped up on the stool next to the woman before glancing back and forth between the two of them. “Are you  _ intimidating  _ this poor barista? And here I thought we went over your manners years ago.” She turned to Cethys with a cheeky smile. “My apologies on behalf of my colleague here; she can tend to be a little overwhelming sometimes if she forgets herself. May I have a small vanilla latte, please?”

Cethys had no idea what was going on, but was more than happy for the excuse to remove herself from the conversation and nodded, revving up the espresso machine’s grinder attachment.

“Krile. It’s  _ her _ \- you know very well that Thancred said-”

“Oh, well if _Thancred_ _said._ ” Krile teased.

_ “Krile!” _ Y’shtola exclaimed indignantly.

The shorter woman smiled as she paid for her drink. “Simply because your ‘special friend’ has certain ideas on how to treat people doesn’t give  _ you _ the excuse to forget what you learned in  _ your _ etiquette lessons, young Shtola.”

“Thancred is not my ‘special friend’ - honestly, people don’t even  _ say _ that anymore, Krile.”

“That’s not what Matoya told me at tea last week~” Krile singsonged.

Y’shtola froze, turned pink and said nothing further as she tugged at her hair with a frown.  
  


(Krile: 1; Y’shtola: 0.)

Much as she’d like to pretend she wasn’t listening in, Cethys couldn’t help but smile as she finished emptying the milk foamer.

“And no comments from the peanut gallery over there!” 

She handed over Krile’s drink and held up her hands innocently. “The peanut gallery is blissfully ignorant.”

Y’shtola sent a glare her way, momentarily forgetting her embarrassment. “Krile simply is of a mind that because one spends an inordinately long amount of time with someone-”

“No, it’s because I saw you two outside Dr. Augurelt’s office-”

“We were merely discussing battle strategies!”

“Is that what the youth are calling it nowadays?” Krile muttered, amused. 

Y’shtola rolled her eyes and went back to reading her novel.

  
“Regardless, Cethys, was it?” Cethys nodded warily, resigned to the fact that she would probably end up having to talk with these two after all. “I have an adoptive nephew, Alphinaud, that would like to meet with you regarding your latest experience in Eorzea - You see, where the Scions,” she gestured to Y’shtola, who once again raised her hand in a dismissive greeting, content to let someone else do the talking, “are more versed at handling internal issues from an ingame perspective, the Leveilleur Research Foundation is a bit more - how shall I put this, hm…”

Y’shtola interjected. “They’re merely interested in collecting the data right now so that others can put it to use. We are scattered throughout the field, but their position is in the air - more or less - to view the grand picture of things.” She sipped her coffee. “If that makes sense to you.”

“Precisely.” Krile nodded, then beamed up at the woman, heedless of Cethys’ internal turmoil. “See, you  _ can _ be polite! I knew you had it in you.”

The other miqote’s ear twitched, and Cethys had the vague inkling that if they were in Eorzea the lalafell would have had an incoming missile of some sort to dodge.

Thankfully, they were in a public cafe. 

Well - hers, actually.

Hmm. Maybe not thankfully after all, then.

“Leveilleur Research Foundation, you say?” Cethys asked instead, forestalling the impending argument. “Sure, I’ll meet with this Alphinaud person. As long as he isn’t interrupting the Trials’ hours.”

“Wonderful,” said Krile, hopping down from the stool. “I’ll let him know. Shtola, I’m aware you’re a woman grown now, but do try to keep your… ‘strategy meetings’ away from Urianger’s quarters, yes? The poor man seemed  _ quite _ flustered this morning.”

The door jingled shut, and the older woman left swiftly before Y’shtola could respond. 


	8. Foundations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First impressions, discoveries, and a record from those otherwise unknown.

The shining spectacle known as Syrcus Tower stood over a thousand yalms high and could be seen from several,  _ several _ malms away.

The virtual recreation of this Allagan relic that had been painstakingly rebuilt to scale in Eorzea Online was no different. This gargantuan data structure (in a very literal sense) was ilm-for-ilm identical to its real-life counterpart - or at least it appeared to be. The similarities ended at its virtual gates, however, as the entrance was heavily guarded by eight sentinel-like statues, and four aetherial barriers between them prevented any from trying to gain access to the labyrinthine exterior.

G’raha stood outside their walls, pondering the best way to break it without drawing the attention of every player in the server’s zone.

“It’s no use,” a man said from behind him. “The way in is shut. Believe me, we’ve tried.” 

He turned around. A tall, grizzled roegadyn waved at him in greeting, while the slightly shorter man in white hair by his side consulted his ingame tomestone with a frown. 

“Rem, you have to check these readings. I’ve never seen the tower this active before.” He passed the glowing device over and glanced up at G’raha. “What brings a lone archer out to the Labyrinth of Ancients?”

G’raha stood up as straight as his short stature would allow him. “I am here to find a way into Syrcus Tower.”

The hyur snorted. “Good luck with that one.”

“Now, now, Cosmos. I’m not of a mind to turn down help when it falls into our lap, and neither should you be.” The taller roegadyn chided the man, who shrugs and continues tinkering with his instruments. “You can call me Remnant. What’s your name, son?”

“Noah Legacy, at your service. I don’t suppose you have any records I can peruse?” he asked. Maybe, once he had an idea of where to begin, he would be somewhat closer to cracking the codified walls to get inside.

Remnant looked up from the device with a raised eyebrow. “Noah… as in, the Allagan prophet?”

G’raha blinked, ears twitching in surprise. “Well - yes, actually. Quite astute of you, if I may say. Are you a scholar of some sort? Researcher, perhaps?

“You could say that,” Remnant said with a smile. “I’ve been looking into the ruins in Mor Dhona - the real one, that is - for the past, oh, I don’t know. At least 5-10 years, I’d say?” He looked up at the Crystal Tower, hand raised to shade his eyes from the sun. “When I heard they put it in Eorzea Online, I dusted off my old beta account and came to see if they’d done anything special with the place. But I’m in the same boat as you - can’t get in for the life of me. As for you, I’d say you’ve got a similar story, given you’ve referred to it as  _ Syrcus  _ Tower - am I right?”

He nodded. “It’s my major - Allagan History. I’m going to be the first in my family to graduate from Baldesion.”

“Baldesion University?” 

“Indeed.”

The older man laughed. “Ah, my alma mater. Bless them. They’ll send you post until the end of time begging for donations once you’ve graduated, you know.”

Cosmos interjected from behind them. “Lovely as this discussion is, we’re still nowhere nearer to determining the source of the signal. You mind lending me a hand?”

G’raha looks back at the man. “Signal?”

Passing the beeping device back to the engineer, Remnant answered G’raha, “The Coinach Collective has been monitoring the tower ever since it appeared. Just a few bells ago we started receiving reports of unusual energy fluctuations from the area. We haven’t quite pinpointed it yet, but I’m thinking it might be from the trench-”

“Then maybe that’s what I’ve been looking for!” G’raha couldn’t help but exclaim. “I was doing research on Eureka-”

Much to his consternation, the two began laughing. His ears flattened in embarrassment. 

“Eureka. Really.” Cosmos snorted. “If you believe in _that_ , I have a bridge in Kugane I’d like to sell you.”

“Now, now. There’s no need to be rude,” Remnant told the man, but rolled his eyes regardless. “He’s just a student.”

“You can’t be serious,” G’raha protested, crossing his arms. “To dismiss it by name alone… Surely it’s at the very least worth looking into?”

The teal-skinned Roegadyn looked at him sympathetically. “When you’ve been in the field as long as I have, boy, you learn to take such rumours with a grain of salt. And Silvertear Lake has more than enough of it to fill buckets.” He looked out across the shimmering waters. “Eureka’s just a fairy tale - though from a historian’s perspective, it is indeed one that has had more variations than most, I’ll give you that. But nothing in the game - no quests, no background lore - has ever given any indication that they built the Forbidden Land into Eorzea Online.”

“You said Syrcus was giving off a signal, did you not? Why  _ couldn’t  _ it be the Sanctuary?” he protested one last time.

The two traded unfathomable looks. 

He sighed to himself. They weren’t going to humor him, no matter what he said.

“But perhaps it is as you say. After all, I’m only a student, am I not?” G’raha somewhat bitterly finished, casting his gaze to the engineer. “I shall humbly allow you to simply refer to your own expertise in this matter.”

G’raha gave them both a courteous yet tightlipped smile and bowed stiffly before turning and walking back to Mor Dhona, tail bristled and lashing around unhappily.

_ They’re wrong_, he thought to himself.  _ I just know they are. They have to be. _

  
  
  


Rammbroes sighed to himself and shook his head. Youth.

“Think I upset the lad?” Cid asked him.

“He’ll get over it.” Rammbroes rolled his eyes. “Presumably. He’s young; he’ll be fine.”

Cid made a noncommittal noise as the transceiver he had been fiddling with stopped beeping. “Huh. Well, I’ll be.”

“What is it?”

“Think I figured out what made the tower give off those energy fluctuations we picked up,” the engineer said as he tapped at the device thoughtfully.

“And?”   
  
“And you’re not going to like it,”    
  
“Why not?” asked Rammbroes, scratching his head.

Cid jabbed his thumb in the direction of the miqo’te who had just stormed off.   
  
“Because I’m fairly certain it was _him_.”

  
  
  


\--

  
  
  


The main thing that Alphinaud regretted about being at the head of the Leveilleur Research Foundation is that it left very little time for leisure. He found that he quite missed his creative endeavors, and the sunset right now would have been a perfect setting for it. The sky over Val’s eastern seawall was painted in bright red-orange strokes of light that gave way to a deepest blue, and what little he could see of the dwindling sun sparkled in reflection against the crashing waves below. 

Nonetheless, he was meant to meet an important contact here - or at least, that’s what Krile had told him - and thus, he sadly had little to no time for such frivolities. Certainly not today.

He checked his watch and frowned slightly. Where was she, anyway?

“Sorry, are you Alphinaud?” a voice sounded from behind him. 

Alphinaud turned to see a miqo’te tugging at long scarlet-tipped blue hair, her tail twining nervously around an ankle. He smiled his business smile he’d been practicing to try and put her at ease. “Indeed I am, miss - Cethys, correct?”

She nodded, shoulders sagging in relief. “I’ve been looking for you up and down the whole coast it seems like - apologies for the wait. We closed a bit later than I was hoping today, too…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “But you didn’t come here to talk about my small cafe, I suppose?”

“Indeed I did not.” Alphinaud said. 

It was worth a try, she thought sadly as he unwittingly drove a dagger through her small yet ultimately short-lived hopes. 

“As you are undoubtedly already aware, the summoning of Titan has brought an end to the peace enjoyed by the Lominsan-based servers.” She nodded again. He gestured for her to follow him, and they began the walk along the seawall. “The Leveilleur Research Foundation has taken a great interest in these so-called Primals as of late. Much of what they - that is to say,  _ we _ \- actually research lies within the realms of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Therefore, normally we would have had no hand in this matter. Nor would we have any curiosity beyond the norm - it  _ is _ an online game, after all, and the characters within must naturally be programmed with  _ some _ manner of AI if they are to fight alongside you.”

She simply nodded yet again, neither able to nor interested in getting a word in edgewise.

He continued, “However, we could not help but notice some strange similarities between the reports of the tempered we had been receiving from the Seventh Dawn and previous unpublished articles submitted to us by our vast collection of independent researchers. Yet without an eyewitness account, they were impossible to verify. And thus did we labor for a solution - albeit fruitlessly, I must reluctantly admit.”

Cethys sighed inwardly. “Until now.”

“Until now.” Alphinaud agreed. “I am quite sure the others have told you as much.” They reached the edge of the seawall, where the aptly-named Cliffside Restaurant had stood for several decades, and with any luck would continue to stand for several more. He walked them both straight up to the open glass double doors. “If you would be so kind as to stay here one moment.” Cethys nodded, confused but willing to acquiesce nonetheless.

The blonde hyur behind the ostentatious stand almost chuckled when she saw the short elezen make his way into the rather expensive restaurant. “Welcome to the Cliffside, young man. Do you know if your parents have a reservation?” the maître d’ asked, over-sweetly.

He drew himself up to as much height as his teenage self could muster. “I actually have access to one of the heritage balconies, if you please.”

She smiled tightly. “Sir, I’d love to help you with that, but those are reserved for the founding families-”

Alphinaud cut her off. “And full glad am I to hear that Cliffside takes its responsibilities seriously. Therefore, unless my sister failed to inform me that she would also be attending our meeting today, the Leveilleur Room should be otherwise unoccupied.” He handed over his embossed identification to the stupefied woman and turned back to the glass doors briefly, beckoning the rather bemused Cethys forward with a short wave.

\--

Begin Admin Log #2276

Recorded 22.01.532 GMT

> Lahabrea joined the chat.

> Igeyorhm(2) joined the chat. 

> Elidi.bus joined the chat.

**Elidi.bus:** cant b3lieve u put me in charge ty :D

**Elidi.bus:** of g3tting ah0ld of ev3ryb0dy aNyway

**Lahabrea:** Who were you able to successfully reach?

**Igeyorhm(2):** Me, for one, obviously

**Elidi.bus:** Dan saiD he c0uld come 

**Elidi.bus:** idk if heS gonna b h3re tho

**Elidi.bus:** n obvs L&M cant maKe it cause th3yre busy w u-no-what

**Lahabrea:** Haven’t been able to fix your keylog corruption, I see.

**Elidi.bus:** whaT c0rrup+ion :?

**Lahabrea:** ...

> Fandaniel_copy(1) joined the chat. 

**Elidi.bus:** u made it?! :o

**Lahabrea:** Thank you for coming for once, Fandaniel.

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** elidibus wouldnt stop bugging me so

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** kinda had no choice

**Elidi.bus:** Emet-Selch? wh3re is

**Elidi.bus:** waS supp0sed 2 b h3re 10m ago

**Lahabrea:** Sleeping again, I have no doubt.

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** figures

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** hey does this mean i can go

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** blitzball in 5m so like

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** itd be cool of you

> Emet-Selch joined the chat.

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** damn it

**Emet-Selch:** Rude.

> Emet-Selch left the chat.

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** sweet

**Elidi.bus:** he n3ver stays :( 

**Elidi.bus:** whyd u maKe him l3ave

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** whatevs

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** outies yall

**Fandaniel_copy(1):** go team

> Fandaniel_copy(1) left the chat.

**Igeyorhm(2):** Now that he is out of the way, whats on the agenda

**Lahabrea:** I had been intending to take stock of our current progress.

**Lahabrea:** I suppose the meeting is still salvageable without them.

**Igeyorhm(2):** Not like Dan would have been helpful, in any case

**Elidi.bus:** ev3ryone alWays f1ghting :/ 

**Igeyorhm(2):** Look, kid, say something useful or be quiet

**Elidi.bus:** !!!

**Elidi.bus:** n0t a kid :<

**Elidi.bus:** just sh0rt okayyys9212klsd

> Elidi.bus left the chat.

**Igeyorhm(2):** What is WRONG with him

**Lahabrea:** Case of nonstandard keylog corruption and the emotional maturity of a child. I try not to hold it against him. He was the one mostly responsible for getting the heart of our old 0d-ARCnet running, after all.

**Igeyorhm(2):** are you serious rn bread

**Igeyorhm(2):** him

**Lahabrea:** Indeed.

**Lahabrea:** Back on topic - Where do you intend to go from here?

**Igeyorhm(2):** Well, I HAD been wanting to speak with Emet-Selch, but since hes not here, I dont necessarily have direction atm

**Lahabrea:** Then I suppose we shall have to reconvene at a later date. In the meantime, continue your work with Thordan EXO. The intel you have been sending us shall soon prove useful.

**Igeyorhm(2):** Ugh, but their system is so OLD 

**Igeyorhm(2):** Do you even know what its LIKE 

**Igeyorhm(2):** trying to compile at these speeds

**Igeyorhm(2):** and the internet keeps freezing every other minute 

**Lahabrea:** Just continue to play your part, and we shall play ours.

**Lahabrea:** I trust you have everything under control this time.

**Igeyorhm(2):** ugh we dont talk about Project 13 damn it

**Igeyorhm(2):** ok fine

**Igeyorhm(2):** I swear this better actually get us somewhere for once

> Igeyorhm(2) left the chat.

> Lahabrea left the chat.

End of record. 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how long this is going to be, but I'm going to try my best to make this a completed story.
> 
> More words to (hopefully) follow.
> 
> Special shout outs to the lovely people at the Bookclub, without whom this would probably have never existed. If you enjoyed my words, for some odd reason, and you like reading and/or writing fanfiction, please come join our [very lovely discord community](https://discord.gg/YgkDStS) that is very wholesomely debauched and enabling, so that you, too, can write things and then immediately regret them once you have finished.


End file.
